


When Will You Come Back?

by Mikaza1498



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Adopted Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki is a Good Friend, Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Female Percy Jackson, Gen, Kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25290211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikaza1498/pseuds/Mikaza1498
Summary: His mother was weird, but she loved him and nothing would take her away, right?
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki & Kirishima Eijirou & Midoriya Izuku & Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Nico di Angelo & Midoriya Izuku, Percy Jackson & Midoriya Izuku
Comments: 8
Kudos: 98





	1. Humble Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This story is co-written by myself and my friend Trayia. He will be posting this on His FanFiction.Net account while I shall be posting it here on AO3
> 
> Please remember do not own anything and PJO and BNHA both go to their respective owners. We are here just to write our ideas out onto a piece of paper.
> 
> Except updates to be roughly once a week.

_ “You sure you want to do this? It stands against everything she stands for.” _

_ “I’ll deal with it when the time arrives.” _

_ “Very well, here’s my keys.” _

**\-----**

Caregiver Ayuka had been a strict orphanage mother since she had started her time at Sunnybrook Orphanage. It wasn’t necessarily on purpose, it just sort of happened. After all, it was practically inevitable when dealing with multitudes of orphaned children, especially those that were just learning of their quirks. Quirks only made the job that much harder.

“Madam Ayuka! Madam Ayuka!” One of the younger children came bounding up to her. Eyes lit in excitement, “Has anyone come in today?” It was perhaps the most asked question that she ever received when talking to the children. Each and every child always had their hopes high when asking the question to her. More often than not she had to be the bearer of bad news, but sometimes she was able to see the ray of sunshine that emanated from when there was good news.

She tapped her cheek for a moment, pausing her work on the adoption papers for a recently adopted child and instead reached across the paperwork. She grabbed a thick leather book and brought it in front of her. “No one has come in today.” The girl’s look turned to an immediate downpour and even Madam Ayuka winced at the crestfallen look the girl gave. “However, there is an appointment scheduled in a few hours. I’ll let you know when it happens Uruka.” The caretaker couldn’t stop the small smile that appeared on her lips seeing Uruka’s feathery white wings flutter excitedly.

“Thanks Madam Ayuka!” The girl shouted and took off running, her wings flapping with the need to get off the ground. 

After Uruka left, Madam’s Ayuka smile dissipated as she sadly glanced out the window. There was little detail about the person that wanted to come in that she hadn’t dared mention. Normally the family gave a small description of what they wanted. A boy or a girl, young or old. The woman that had called gave none of that. Just a small message that said she would be coming to look at some of the children that would be here.

A headache was beginning to form just thinking of it. More often than not it would mean that they didn't plan on getting a child. Just came to get the children’s hopes up. At times it was worse to see no one go rather than see only one or two leave. At least it gave the other children who watched discouragingly as others were picked and not them hope that they too could be adopted one day like their friends.

“Madam Ayuka?” One of the other caretakers came into the cluttered office. A small look of shock on her face. “The women that was supposed to arrive later today is already here.”

She was on her feet in a dash. “You warn the children to get ready, I’ll keep her preoccupied.”

**\-----**

On the other side of the orphanage, a young nine-year-old boy named Izuku Midoriya was sitting all by himself, scribbling away barely legible notes into an overused and worn-thin notebook at the tiny, itty-bitty desk next to his bed. For a second he stopped his desperate scribbling to reread what he wrote and collect his thoughts, although how he could read his own writing was a mystery as it looked closer to Greek than Japanese. Then, after a bit, he went back to his chicken scratches, this time with the added bonus of gnawing on the nails of his left hand. 

Not too far away, in the same large room, a few boys younger but bigger than Izuku sat together with plastic toys in their hands, but their cold eyes were on their orphan brother. Izuku knew the four boys were drilling holes into the side of his head, and every once and a while he felt the overwhelming need to glance at them before snapping back to his work, but overall he was used to this; being shunned, being excluded, being glared at, being  _ bullied _ . He was used to all of it, and he had the bruises to prove it, too… after all... 

_ Kids could be so mean _ , Izuku thought as he glanced to the other side of himself, away from the four boys to glance at two girls whispering to each other and snickering while blatantly pointing at him. He looked away and hunched further in on himself. 

He was used to this. 

It’d been this way since he was orphaned when he was roughly four-years-old. By himself, scared, and undeniably  _ lonely _ with no hope of getting adopted ever since he was  _ four-years-old _ . Not only was he now past the prime age for adoption, and on the cusp of becoming what is considered the ‘unadoptable’, simply from being too old, but he was also  _ Quirkless _ . And as everyone liked to remind him, no one wanted a quirkless, useless child.

No one wanted a  _ Deku _ … and yet, Izuku refused to throw in the towel. He hoped and he hoped that maybe one day someone, anyone, would come along that didn't care about his age or his lack of unique ability, and he’d be able to have a home. A true home, like dozens of other kids before him. 

Izuku smiled bitter sweetly at the thought of being adopted and all the other ‘pipe dreams’ he had, like growing up to be a hero. 

While he daydreamed, Izuku momentarily stopped his writing just in time for the mother of the orphanage to come running into the children’s sleeping quarters. Partially out of breath, she ordered everyone to quickly put away toys into one of several giant toy bins around the room, and then shouted for a lineup. 

Izuku watched with his heart in his throat as the dozen kids around the room scrambled to put stuff away and to fix their bedsheets. This only meant one possibility… someone had come to see them unannounced. 

Izuku tried to put his papers and notebook away but there was so many lose papers scattered around that needed to be folded, and some were extremely delicate and one wrong move from being ripped apart, and he wanted to put them back in relative order, and his mind was fuzzy, and his hands were shaking, and he still had his bed to fix, and everyone was already lining up next to their beds…

Izuku wound up abandoning his half put together notebook to quickly fix his bedsheets and line up, sweat already beginning to drip down his neck. 

With bated breath, Izuku and his orphaned brothers and sisters all waited.

After a few moments, on the opposite side of the dull room, Madam Ayuka entered, and following right behind her was a young woman. 

Izuku gulped, he knew the rules of the orphanage. He wasn’t supposed to stare at any of the adoptees, it was considered rude and desperate, but Izuku was too curious for his own good. He stared at the newcomer as she walked down the line of children ranging from seven to eleven from the corner of his eye. 

She was young, very young and looked even younger. If she wasn’t here to adopt, Izuku would have sworn she was only a teenager. In addition, she was extremely pretty, with hair as black as the night, and perfectly tanned skin. It didn’t help that she was clearly a foreigner from Europe or America, or somewhere around those areas, making her stand out and come across as even more pretty in the eyes of Japanese children obsessed with American culture. 

However, her potential age and her race weren’t the weirdest part about her, and it wasn’t until she was standing right in front of Izuku that he noticed: her eyes. Her eyes were a captivating light sea green that swirled round and round like the ocean: calm, gentle and so inviting. And yet, there was also something hidden in the women’s pupils. Something wise. Something ancient. Something  _ deadly.  _ Something maybe even a little tired. They were the same eyes that belonged to an aging war veteran, not a young woman. 

With a deep blush and a slight shudder, Izuku looked away, fighting the urge to place a hand over his thumping heart attempting to jump out of his chest. 

The young woman tilted her head down at the young boy. 

“It’s rude not to look someone in the eye,” She told him curtly. Izuku withheld a gasp and slowly turned his head back up, but he didn’t dare look into her eyes again. Displeased, the woman's rough, calloused hand gently grabbed his chin and titled his head up higher, so he would see her curious eyes. “What is your name, child?”

Izuku’s heart was going to explode. 

“I-Izuku Mi-i-dor-iya, Ma’-am,” He nervously stammered. 

The young woman nodded and muttered a quiet, “I see…”

Around the room, Izuku's orphaned siblings glared jealously at the two, especially one of the eleven-year-olds, who was a year away from being officially ‘unadoptable’. 

In a sudden fit of desperate jealousy, the eleven-year-old called out, “You don’t want him! He’s  _ Quirkless _ .” 

Madam Ayuka snapped at the boy about speaking without having been spoken too, but the damage was done. The woman looked surprised and then pulled her hands away from Izuku. 

Sorrow, fear and anger and a million other emotions gripped his heart at the small action, until he passed every stage of grief and sadly accepted his reality. No one wanted a Quirkless child, he would have a better chance at adoption if he was lame or mentally ill. 

The young woman stepped away from Izuku and walked past a few kids who were waiting for her to talk to  _ them  _ straight to the eleven-year old. Madam Ayuka looked like she wanted to add a comment but she bit her lip. 

Izuku tried, he tried very hard, but he couldn’t stop the tears from slipping over his eyelids and down his cheeks. Very rarely did adoptees stopped to speak more than the mandatory ‘what is your name?’ or look at him with any sort of interest in their eyes. They just asked him for his name and moved on to someone more interesting, someone neater, someone younger. So, for the first time in a while, someone had looked at him with interest, and just like that she was gone, because he was  _ Quirkless _ . 

“What is your name, boy?” The woman asked the eleven-year-old in perfect japanese. 

Izuku felt someone tap his shoulder and he looked up to see Madam Ayuka handing him a handkerchief. He sniffed and took it, feeling incredibly embarrassed and stupid as he wiped his tears and snot. 

“Katashi, Ma’am,” The eleven-year-old smiled, feeling incredibly smug and unbelievably grateful. He glanced at Izuku and his smile widened at the sight of him crying. 

“I see,” the woman said blandly, almost sounding bored. She then bent down to the young boy at eye level, and the look she gave Katashi wipes the smile right off his face. “And why would I adopt a brat like you?”

Katashi’s eyes widen, “I… well I… but I…”

“Shut your mouth,” The woman snapped, and Katashi did as told. “Listen here, you nasty child… a person is more important than a Quirk.”

Izuku’s entire body shuddered seeing the perplexing exchange between Katashi and the women. A glimmer of hope that Izuku hadn't truly felt in so very long appeared from nowhere and he snatched at it without even thinking. He knew it was still a long shot, there were still many other kids the women had yet to meet, but he still wanted to believe. He wanted to believe in this simple pipe dream if only for a minute. 

The woman stood up, deciding the boy was no longer worth her time and she walked back to Madam Ayuka. 

“I think I’d like this young boy,” The woman said, motioning her head to Izuku. 

Izuku's heart stopped. His head stopped functioning. He gaped slaw jawed, eyes puffy and nose leaking from crying. 

This was a dream. 

Madam Ayuka went to protest, seeing as there were other children to meet but the women repeated her stance, harsher this time. After a moment, Madam Ayuka nodded with haste and motioned for Izuku to come with them. 

This was a dream. 

Izuku quickly finished wiping his tears and nose and mindlessly stumbled after Madam Ayuka and the women.

This was a dream. It had to be. 

Next thing Izuku knew he was standing inside Madam Ayuka’s office and they were discussing legal things that flew over his head. 

This was a dream.

An hour or so later, the two women stood up, shook hands and Madam Ayuka left the room with the two of them together saying she was going to grab Izuku's things from his room. But in reality this was a simple test that Izuku and all children were programmed to know. They were left alone with their potential caretakers for a bit, to make sure they were comfortable with the adults. To make sure the adults wouldn’t try anything. 

Izuku pinched his leg again for the umpteenth time. Not being able to believe that this was happening. 

“Izuku, was it?” The woman asked suddenly, startling Izuku out of his skin. Sea green eyes met forest green, and he nervously nodded. “I have a question for you.” She continued, her voice smooth and even like butter. “This will decide whether I officially adopt you or not.”

Fear erupted and reeked out of Izuku’s body. This would decide whether he got adopted or not? Why? How could she be so cruel to say something like that after all this time? The small ray of hope that grew in his chest slowly began to dwindle out and was quickly being replaced with dread. He knew it was too good to be true... 

“I-I-”

The woman held out her hand, “Stop child. You will get nowhere from fear. Answer the question honestly and in turn I shall do the same to you.” Seeing the small boy take a breath of air and nod, she continued, “You do not have a quirk, correct?” 

Hesitantly Izuku nodded at her, traces of fear in his eyes but there was something else that she noticed. 

A wry grin appeared at her lips, the first true emotion that she had shown Izuku. “You can relax, I had already decided.” The smile quickly disappeared and she held out her hand for him to take, “Welcome to Hades, child. Good luck.”

**\-----**

Months passed and Izuku admittedly had a little trouble adjusting to his new atmosphere, sensing the woman who adopted him, who claimed her name was Percy Jackson, was very… _private_ , and didn’t say much about herself _._ But while Izuku was still getting used to this place, he was nonetheless grateful to be given a home, and his own little room he could decorate to his heart's content. 

Then, late one night, Izuku's eyes fluttered open at a banging sound coming from downstairs. A groggy, grumpy frown filtered it's way onto his face as he stared at the ceiling in confusion. 

His eyes peered outside to see it was still dark out. Had he imagined it?

Another bang was heard and the young nine-year-old swore that he could feel the house shake. Hesitantly he got out of his bed and quietly walked down the stairs with a fluttering heart. He would have looked down from the stairs but his eyes didn't quite fit over the edge of the thick wood railing.

"Mother?" Izuku called, practically shivering with nerves. It was what his guardian had asked him to call her. Not mom, just mother. Her reasoning was that neither of them were used to each other yet, but just ‘Percy’ made them sound more like siblings and she didn’t like that. Izuku had agreed, seeing as he truly wasn’t used to his new guardian quite yet, but the term ‘Mother’ was still so formal to him. Maybe one day, hopefully soon, he’d upgrade to ‘Mom’.

Another bang shook the house and this time Izuku almost fell over, quickly grabbing onto one of the rails. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he peaked into the living room and saw no one.

_ 'Where is she?'  _ He wondered to himself. The house wasn't too big but the shaking had to come from somewhere.

"Right here child." Izuku whipped around to see his mother standing between him and the doorway. There was an amused look in her eyes but as always she kept a straight face. "Is there a reason that you are awake so late?"

Izuku had the decency to blush. 

"Did I say that out loud?" He asked, referring to his thought about the shaking needing to come from somewhere.

His caretaker looked even more amused. "Perhaps. You didn't answer my question, however."

"I heard banging." Izuku admitted. "It was loud and I thought something had happened." His blush grew in size and he was close to looking like a tomato.

Percy hummed to herself. After an internal conflict with herself she shrugged. "I was training"

"Training?" Izuku was confused. What would his mother have to train for? An idea flickered across his mind, and his eyes widened as he stepped a little closer to her. "Are you a hero! Are you going to beat up the bad guys?" His smile was close to infectious and even Percy had trouble keeping one off of her face. The hand that was patting his head went to his cheek. Getting down on her knees, she flicked him in the head.

He quickly withdrew from the hard sting and had a look of confusion on his face, "What was that for?"

"To see if you are strong enough."

"Strong enough? Strong enough for what?" Once again his mother didn't answer but stood up and walked down the hall. Staring at her in confusion, Izuku didn't move until she gestured to follow. Quickly catching up, he watched her walk around the corner and disappear. "Mother?" He asked, turning and looking all over, wondering where she had gone.

A hand reached out and pulled him forward. Suddenly he found himself in a rectangular room that was empty. A single step walked down onto a smaller floor that was clearly meant for training. The room was illuminated in a weird way and it was slightly hard to see. The lights we're facing upwards and not downwards.

"Woah." Izuku gasped, taking a few steps back to get away from the light. It didn’t work.

"Are you ready?" She asked, her tone held no more amusement but was flat as she looked out at the floor. 

"Ready?" Izuku had a feeling he was going to regret asking.

The wry grin appeared, not quite a smile but it was the closest thing that he had seen. "You want to be a hero? Don't you?" He nodded with a smile, a fearful, anxious smile.

A hand slapped his back and he got sent tumbling forward.

"Dodge," was all he heard as he was pelted in the face with a soft ball.

"Ow!" he withdrew from his spot and shifted to the side to dodge an incoming dodgeball. "What was-" He stopped talking after receiving a ball to the face and falling on his back. "Ow!”

"Get moving" Her voice held no emotion as she readied another dodgeball. 

**\-----**

The morning after Izuku felt sore all over his body. He didn't feel like moving and everything screamed at him to sleep even longer than he had. With a pained groan, he twisted onto his side and glanced at one of the very few items in the room. The alarm clock.

_ 12:34 _

His eyes widened in horror. He had never slept that late before. Not even close! If he had been at the orphanage they would have screamed at him to get up. With a quick scuffle, he hopped up onto his feet and quickly went to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, he watched pale as a ghost as his mother set out a plate of blue cookies onto the kitchen counter. “Good morning.” She said, not bothering to look up from her baking.

Izuku waited for her to yell at him, but she didn’t, just kept moving cookies onto the plate. 

Percy looked over her shoulder, and held up a piping hot, fresh one. The middle seconds from caving in on itself from all the gooey chocolate.

“Want one?” She asked blankly, almost like she was saying a joke. Izuku stared at the cookie, but now for a completely different reason.

“They’re… blue?” He questioned out loud. “Why are they blue?” 

She shrugged, a twinge of mischief in her eyes. “Perhaps they’re poisoned just for you?” She commented as he hesitantly went to grab one. His eyes grew comically wide and he slowly pulled his hand away from the counter, causing his mother to smirk. 

“Just eat one, child. I was only joking.”

Izuku wasn’t quite sure he believed her, but he took one anyway. 

Even if they were poisoned, he wouldn’t have regretted eating one. They were the tastiest things he’d ever had in his life. 

**\-----**

He noticed through the years his mom was rather… strange. She tried her best not to show emotion, why, Izuku never understood but he didn't have the guts to ask his mom. Her smiles would quickly filter away once they appeared. That didn’t stop her from caring for him but it was her own unique way to show that she cared, he just didn’t understand why she did it. An inkling of a feeling would tell him it had something to do with her past. 

He did know that they cared for one another, and he couldn’t imagine a life without her.

At times maybe he could...

"Get up. I'm not going to ask again." She stared cooly at the little boy that was in front of her, on the hardwood floor. Her unwavering sea green eyes held no emotion behind them. No amusement, no pride, nothing. They were waiting, waiting for the child to make a move.

Unlike the woman that was teaching him, the boy had sweat dripping down his body. His shirt had long been tossed to the side and his raspy breaths echoed the room as he laid on his forearms and shins. 

She had long since warned Izuku that he would be put through her own version of hell, but she said he could do it. The only person that had ever said he had a chance but the path there would be hard, but she believed him. 

At the age of four, Izuku Midoriya was an orphan. His father had disappeared in his early life, a quirkless child was a nobody and having one was looked down upon. His biological mother had never said it while she was alive, but his father was ashamed to be related to Izuku. The last he heard the man had moved to the Americas and started a new family. Hopefully one that actually would be able to gain quirks. With his father out of the picture it was only his mother left.

Things were...hard. Extremely so. His mother wasn't able to support both of them alone and she soon fell ill.

The rest was history he supposed. His mom soon died and he was thrown into an orphanage. A quirkless child with no way of ever finding a home. No one wanted a quirkless child, it was unheard of in this day.

Well… except for Izuku's adopted mother, he supposed. 

"Get up." Percy's voice tore through his thoughts. "You have three seconds." Her foot tapped on the ground once, the start of an unspoken countdown.

The last time she had hit three he was unable to sleep for two nights afterwards. With a strained groan he lifted himself up onto his feet.

Her cold gaze watched him. The sea green eyes that he had gotten used to seeing had a stormy look in them. It was impossible to understand what his guardian was thinking. "We're done." 

He froze for a moment. He hadn't heard her say that before. "What?"

Lifting her sword down, she blinked once and looked slightly displeased. "While I can control the battlefield, I cannot control your thoughts. You are too young to understand but training further then now will be pointless." 

"But I'm fine." He argued with her that he himself found strange. This was the first time that she had allowed him to stop since he started training with her about three years ago.

She snorted, "You aren't close to fine. You can barely hold your own right now." She paused in what she was saying. His parent looked annoyed but sighed after a moment. "Get some rest. We are leaving in the morning."

His eyes shot open, "Leaving? Again? Why?" 

Her eyes watched him and a wry smile appeared on her lips. "Ugly acquaintances won't be happy I have a child. That and more I suppose."


	2. Meetings and Messages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we are well aware that we told you guys to expect chapters roughly once a week and yet we are a little two weeks late, but sadly Trae was busy hosting his family for a week and a half. And couldn’t find the time to write or talk. The next chapter should be very long and will be out on Thursday, at the earliest. Thank you for your patience and enjoy the Chapter!
> 
> -Kayla

Izuku watched, panting from the doorstep of his latest home as his mother unloaded the last three boxes from the back of the moving truck. She set them down on the ground and closed the back with a hard, breathy huff. 

It had been a long day for both of them, having been driving all night to get to their new place and then immediately upon arrival started moving boxes and furniture into the house. Only taking a break to eat a quick snack before going back to doing all the other typical things that needed to be done when moving into a new house, but now they were _finally_ just on the brink of being done. 

With a deep breath, Izuku called out to his mother, “Want me to grab them, Mother?” while whipping a trail of sweat from his hairline.

“Well I don’t want you just standing there,” Percy snapped slightly out of breath herself. She whipped some of her own sweat off her forehead and replaced it on her tank top. She then bent down to lift two of the three boxes off the ground. “Honestly, child, I thought you were Japanese.”

Izuku blushed slightly, but he didn’t hold back a giggle as he said, “Well, you're from New York. I think we cancel each other out.”

His mother gave him a blank look, but Izuku swore sometimes he could see a bit of humor in her eyes whenever he teased her. Or maybe humor wasn’t the right word… nostalgic? Maybe? Either way, he supposed it didn’t really matter, the outcome was the same. She’d hit him in the back of the head, and tell him to stop sassing her, and if she was really not in the mood he'd get extra reps during training later in the night. It was worth seeing those brief glances of emotion from his mother though. They were rare enough as they were, so he treasured every one as much as he humanly could. 

Izuku hopped off the doorframe and ran to get the last box, making sure to dodge Percy's awaiting hand that wanted to smack him across the back of his head. He still ended up getting wacked because his mother knew him too well but compared to his mother's training it was practically a prick on the finger. 

As Izuku grabbed the last box he looked up to see a group of kids his age wearing school uniforms looking at him from the sidewalk, most likely on their way home from school. Izuku flushed crimson red as he quickly looked down to ignore his possible neighbors' curious stares. He lifted the box, grunting a little from its surprising weight, and went to turn around to head back inside but he couldn’t help but glance up again when he heard their muttering voices. 

Some of the kids had begun to move on, except for one. A boy about his age, although maybe a bit older, with blond spiky, puffball hair and a very obvious, postering slouch. Izuku had a hard time seeing his face, sense he was a bit ways away, but he was hit with the largest dose of deja vu he had since he and mother first visited this place. At first he thought all the instances where he swore he’d _been here_ before was just because they had moved so much all over the country in the past couple years that the cities and small towns were starting to blur together. Now, however, he wasn’t so sure. This kid stood out, not only in appearance but in aura as well, so there was no way Izuku would ever just _forget_ someone like him, but he couldn’t quite place where he knew the Blond from. Yet, it was still so familiar, just on the tip of his tongue...

The Blond Boy looked away from Izuku, down the sidewalk in the direction of his friends. He then shouldered his book bag and followed lazily after them, like he’d never been interested in Izuku to begin with.

Izuku snapped out of his daze and suddenly realized how sore his arms were getting. He quickly made his way inside, and distantly wondered if he should talk to his mother about his deja vu problem. 

In the end, he wound up never getting the chance to so much as ponder the thought, because as soon as he was back inside the house and kicked the door close behind him, his mother was in front of him to take the box from his aching hands.

“The cooking supplies are in here,” she said hollowly, turning on her heel and carrying the box all the way to the kitchen.

Izuku's eyes widened and then he smiled excitedly, completely forgetting about the blond boy and his questions. Besides, he had far more important things to think about… like whether he wanted white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, or classic milk chocolate chips. After all, it _was_ tradition to bake cookies as soon as they unloaded the boxes from the moving truck. 

For the next week or so, Izuku and his mother slowly started to unpack the boxes and decorate the bare house until it started to feel like it was theirs. Izuku, especially, had fun using his week and then some days before he had to go back to school decorating his room, because his mother had finally allowed him to buy some All Might posters to hang on his walls. In the past, she always said no because they could get damaged while moving easily, and they might be hard to get down if they had to leave quickly, but she agreed after Izuku had the brilliant idea of saying he could put them in a picture frame. 

After they were done getting the house to feel more like a home, even if it was only a temporary one, his mother got busy job hunting and signing Izuku up for the closest Middle School. It would take a week or so until Izuku was cleared to join, so Izuku spent his time outside of school studying heroes and rewatching old All Might videos. Of course, he also spent as much as he could with his mother, whether that involved training or spontaneous urges to bake another baker's dozen of blue cookies.

Baking cookies will always be Izuku's favorite pastimes. 

Eventually, however, his early spring break had to come to an end, and he had to go back to school.

Izuku didn’t _hate_ school like many kids his age. He found learning to be fun, and while homework was unnecessary painful, he had no problems studying. He’d always simply been good with school, but despite that, he still couldn’t say he _liked_ school. The soul reason typically being his classmates. 

Izuku had never had many friends growing up. He had a few… acquaintances(?), for lack of a better word, back when he lived in the orphanage, but he never had _friends._ He had bullies, he had gossipers, but not friends. Most kids his age didn’t want much to do with the new, shy, Quirkless kid who muttered too fast, and cried whenever he watched Mufasa die in _Lion King (1994)._ It hurt, he admitted, some days more than others but Izuku pushed through. He was used to it after all, and he never stayed in one place anyway, so it wasn’t like he was supposed to get attached to anyone anyway. It just made school harder than it needed to be, but nothing he couldn’t handle in reality.

And it was that mindset that sent Izuku through multiple loops on his first day at his new school. 

It started off normal; he was given a tour of the school by his homeroom class’s Representative before being taken to his class. Where he was introduced to his classmates and his homeroom teacher. Then, he told a little something about himself and was given a seat in the second row towards the middle. He didn’t really look up at any of his new, temporary, classmates because he never liked the curious stares that came from being the new kid. He also didn’t like how some leaned forward and looked for any obvious signs of the Quirk he did not have. 

He sat down and awkwardly continued on with his day. Between periods the person in front of Izuku would turn around and ask him questions, like where he was from, what his parents did, his favorite subject in school… and the period before lunch the inevitable question was asked. 

“So, what’s your Quirk?” The girl in front of him, Jurisa, asked a little louder than necessary, catching the attention of several students. Maybe it was Izuku being a little paranoid, or just him being self-deprecating, but to him her voice sounded artificially sweet, like she had specifically planned this moment to mess with him. 

In reality she was probably just a nice, curious girl.

Didn’t make the inevitable social suicide any easier, because it wasn’t like he could _lie_ about his quirk. Lying about your quirk never worked out well… 

Izuku bit his lip, blushed red and quietly stuttered under his breath, “Actually… I’m… Quirkless.”

The smile fell from Jurisa’s face, the rest of the class became overbearingly quiet. 

“Oh,” she whispered, surprised. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then the teacher came in and started his class so she had to turn around. 

When lunch came around, the girl in front of him didn’t say a thing to him, and everyone else outright avoided him. 

Yeah, just a normal first day of school. 

Izuku sighed through his nose as he stood up and shuffled himself out of the classroom to head to lunch, not realizing that someone was staring after him. 

He followed the crowd to the cafeteria, and immediately split off from everyone else to find a small table for himself. Or maybe the end of a table? Or maybe they let kids roam the school during lunch and he can go outside? Roam the halls? Find someplace secluded and quiet. 

Izuku decided he’d try and find a permanent eating spot tomorrow and opted to sit at a smaller round table in the far corner of the cafeteria. He checked for marks, carvings, or signs that this was a group of friends' normal table before sitting down. It wasn’t. Well, at least, it didn’t belong to anyone who would care enough to force him to get up and move… at least he hoped not. The news did tend to spread fast about him being Quirkless...

Izuku didn’t want to think about it. 

Instead, he allowed his mind to wander over to other, more important topics. He thought about the new hero that had recently debuted and wanted to look up later when his mother allowed him to get on the computer. He thought about recent All Might battles and arrests. He thought about his homework. He thought about his training from the night before. He thought about a lot of things while he munched on his lunch, but it didn’t make time seem to tick any faster. Instead, the minutes ticked by at a snail's pace. Only eight minutes into the half an hour lunch period and Izuku was already on his last blue chocolate chip cookie. 

Izuku frowned when he checked the time. It felt as if lunch was never going to be over at this rate. 

That is, until a shadow appeared out of nowhere in front of Izuku, almost like a ghost, and plopped himself down in the chair across from Izuku as if he was meant to be there. 

Izuku blinked, heart sinking and fingers twitching to grab his stuff and just leave before whoever decided to do anything cruel, but he stopped himself when he actually looked at who was sitting across from him. To his shock, it was the Blond boy from a few weeks ago, hunched over, elbows on the table, and glaring at him. 

“I thought you were dead.” The blond stated bluntly, then popped a baby carrot from his own bento box in his mouth. His voice was deep, and slightly raspy, more of a low growl than anything else. And even though he was talking calmly, he still spoke with this slight edge of passive aggression. Izuku could only imagine what he sounded like when he raised his voice, and it sent a bit of a shiver up his spine.

“Huh?” Izuku squeaked. What else were you supposed to say when a stranger that looks uncomfortably familiar to you just walked up to you and said they thought you were dead?

“I said, I thought you were dead.” The Blond repeated hollowly around a third carrot. He sounded so disinterested but he was glaring at Izuku like he just ran over his puppy. Who the world was this person? 

“...What?” Izuku found himself instantly regretting his words when the Blonds glare morphed into a sneer of pure annoyance. He didn’t think it was possible to look so annoyed so quickly. 

“I'm not repeating myself again, shithead!” The Blond spat and growled. Izuku flinched away. This stranger really was scary when he raised his voice. “Are you deaf or something?!” 

“N-no! I heard you, I'm just…” Izuku struggled to find the proper word to use that wouldn’t set the Blond off again. He took a few seconds before finally deciding on the word- “confused?”

The Blonds glare narrowed. Izuku was starting to wonder what the stranger looked like when he wasn’t glaring at the world. 

“About what?” The Blond asked, causing Izuku to fidget in his seat. Clearly this person knew Izuku, or at least thought he did, and with his obvious temper he didn’t want him to get mad that Izuku only vaguely recognized him. Or would he even get mad? Maybe he won’t care?

Well this whole conversation was weird, and it couldn’t get any worse so Izuku threw caution to the wind.

“Do I know you?” Izuku asked, attempting to make his voice as blunt as possible, but since it was him it still came out a little hesitant. 

Izuku expected the Blond to go off, or look offended, but all he did was raise an unimpressed eyebrow.

“…. you… don’t remember me?” He stated more than questioned slowly.

“Uhm…” Izuku fiddled with his hands. “Not really? I mean you look familiar, and I don’t mean that time when I was moving in a few weeks ago, I remember that. I mean I feel like I’ve met you before that but I don’t know where or who you are. I didn’t even know you went to this school until just now-”

“I sit behind you in class.” The Blond interrupted Izuku's muttering ramble with a low growl. 

Izuku blinked, “... You do?”

“You gotta be fucking with me.” The now exasperated Blond slammed his hand onto the table with a loud throaty groan. He bent down a little lower, forcing Izuku to absolutely meet his eyes. They were bright ruby red, and it sent another wave of deja vu through Izuku. Wait.. no, deja vu was the wrong ‘vu’... this was more _presque vu._ Knowing you know something but not quite sure _how_ . The puffball blond hair… red eyes… aggressive nature… Izuku _swore_ he met this boy before, but _where?_

Izuku shook his, confirming for the Blond that he was not kidding.

Then he said _it._

“I thought you were supposed to be smart, _Deku._ ”

Izuku sucked in a gasp, his forest eyes became saucers and he swore he forgot how to breath for a good minute or two.Suddenly long buried memories, some pleasant, some not so pleasant, bursted through the barrier in the very back of his mind.

Oh, he did know who this was. How could he have ever forgotten?

“… Ka…” Izuku hesitated. “Kacchan?”

The Blond… no _Kacchan_ , rolled his head back and groaned, sounding annoyed once again. 

“Holy shit, I forgot you used to call me that.” He muttered, confirming Izuku's question.

Kacchan... his first and only childhood friend. Some might also say his first bully, but Kacchan had always been a complicated soul. They used to be close, if his vague half memories and feelings served him correctly, but Kacchan had always teased and made fun of him. It wasn’t supposed to be malicious, at least it wasn’t at first. He just didn’t know that words could hurt, and in turn Izuku never bothered to stand up to himself. Even Deku, the nickname that still stuck to Izuku even after he forgot who gave it to him until a few moments ago, was not meant to be cruel despite its meaning. The same way a sibling calling their brother or sister ‘loser’ was only meant to be taken as a joke. Besides to the eyes of a young child, a small, wimpy, easily scared, teary-eyed, and squeaky voiced boy was probably by every definition ‘useless.’

It wasn’t until everyone found out that Izuku was Quirkless that Kacchan started to become cruel towards him, but even then it was a slow process and it didn’t last very long because not long after his mom got sick and Izuku was taken to the orphanage. 

So calling Kacchan a bully would require stretching its definition a little too much for Izukus liking, but calling him his old friend brought up too many bad memories and feelings. 

Either way, Izuku supposed, their past relationship was complicated and they haven’t seen each other in just under a decade… _and_ he was sitting across from him. 

_How_?

“Wha-” Izuku stuttered. “what are you doing here?!”

Kacchan rolled his eyes, “I _go here_ , nerd. I _just_ said that.”

“No that’s not what-....” Izuku stopped dead in his tracks as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “oh.”

“.... ‘oh’, what?”

“Is… uhm… I’ve been getting deja vu a lot so is this the place where…” Izuku trailed off, feeling incredibly studpid for even implying such a question, and clearly Kacchan agreed it was a ridiculous thing to ask. He gave Izuku a dumbfounded look, as in he couldn’t believe Izuku was that dumb. 

“You really are fucking retarded.” He muttered under his breath, but still loud enough for Izuku to hear and take offense. 

“I was _four_ the last time I lived here, Kacchan!” Izuku protested with a slight pout. “That was like… eight?- ten years ago, do you really expect me to remember where I grew up as a four-year-old?”

Kacchan responded with a simple grunt, going back to picking at his own food. 

“Honestly I don’t know how you even remembered _me_.” admitted Izuku with a huff. 

“I didn’t. Not really.” Kacchan snorted like the idea that Izuku was worth remembering was hilarious. “You just looked familiar and it started driving me fucking insane. I asked my Old Man and he still has pictures, the sentimental shit.” He shrugged, before repeating for the third time, “I thought you were dead.”

Izuku frowned, furrowing his eyebrows with confusion, “Wha- why?”

“I was also four years old, _Deku_. One day you stopped showing up to school, and people told me your mom kicked her bucket.” Izuku flinched. So, he still lacked any tack, and... “What else was I supposed fucking to think?”

… and if Izuku was honest with himself, part of him was glad Kacchan hadn't changed all that much. He definitely mellowed out a little, for sure, but he was still undeniably _Kacchan,_ and as the more buried memories filtered in, the more Izuku couldn’t help but smile. Eventually he couldn’t hold it in, he had to snort a laugh or two.

Kacchans eyes predictably narrowed, “What’s so fucking funny, shitty nerd?”

“I just…” Izuku covered his mouth to hide his ugly snorts. “I can’t believe I forgot about you. You stood out so much from all the other kids, and you were my closest friend, even if you weren’t always nice to me, Kacchan-”

“My name is _Katsuki,_ loser! Get it fucking right!”

Another round of giggles hit Izuk, “See?! You’re still the same Kacchan from when we were little. Haven’t changed a bit.”

Kacchan glared at him for a few seconds, almost as if he was trying to process whether he should be offended or not. After a minute or so, he responded “Yeah, well you're still the weakass loser from when we were little.”

“Actually,” Izuku exclaimed enthusiastically. “I can fight now!”

Kacchan didn’t believe him, not for a second, “... You what?” 

“Yeah! I was adopted after my mom died by this lady and she trained me how to fight in hand to hand and stuff!”

It had been so long since the last time he _knew_ someone that Izuku had forgotten how good it felt to talk to someone other than his Mother with familiarity. Or maybe he never felt it to begin with… but regardless, it felt amazing. 

He was actually really glad that Kacchan was here. 

Kacchan watched Izuku for a bit, sizing up the smaller boy before saying, “Probably not as good as me.” 

He probably expected Izuku to cower or admit that he was probably right, but no, Izuku perked at the statement. Another memory flashed across his eyes, of them sharing the same deep love of All Might, and the dream of becoming great heroes. Not famous heroes. Not rich heroes. Not the #1 Hero. Not even _appreciated_ heroes. Just _great_ heroes. 

“You know how to fight?” Izuku asked eagerly, hoping that the underlying question of whether they still shared the same dream was still true. 

It was brief, but Izuku had lived with his mother for a little under five years now. He was quick to see even the slightest facial expression, Kacchans lips had twitched to form a smile. 

“Yeah, Deku-”

“It’s Izuku.” He interrupted with a cheeky smile, to mirror how Kacchan told him to call him _‘_ Katsuki.’

Kacchan rolled his eyes, “Like I give a fuck, _Deku._ ”

“Well if I have to call you Katsuki, you have to call me Izuku.”

“You wanna fight?” The ‘or not’ part was left unsaid. It wasn’t a threat, it was an offer. 

Izuku nodded, slowly, trying to hide how overwhelmingly excited he actually was, “Okay.”

Sadly the bell rang, making so they couldn’t talk more about their spar other than it was definitely going to be that day, and that it was going to happen after school.

Izuku had spent the entire rest of the day bouncing with excitement he didn’t even know he could _feel._ But as soon as school was out, he turned around to face Kacchan who already had his books put away and standing to leave, causing Izuku to scramble after him.

On the way home, Kacchan and Izuku talked about ground rules like whether Katsuki could use his Quirk, and where they would spar. There was the park between their houses, the gym that involved a ten minute detour, and a few other places, but in the end Kacchan accepted Izukus offer to do it at his place. His Mother could oversee in case of cheating, if she was there that is. 

They also agreed on a prize for the winner instantly. If Kacchan won, Izuku had to stop calling him Kacchan. If Izuku won, Kacchan had to stop calling him Deku.

Soon, Izuku had introduced Kacchan to his Mother, who demanded to know their history, and as soon as she heard the story she had quickly led them to the sparring mats inside the training room. Next thing they both knew, Izuku and Kacchan were facing each other, Percy repeating the agreed rules to them and asking if they understood; no quirks, no biting, no weapons, no eye or crotch shots, first to pin the opponent for _five_ seconds. As clean, even and fair a fight as they could get. 

Ready, set, go.

The fight was interesting, and fun, to say the least. It was two similar but vastly different fighting styles pinned against each other. They both used speed, and their nimble reflexes to land hits as quickly as possible. Their fight was more of a quick paced dance than a sparring match, but Kacchan was more sporadic, and relied almost entirely on quick second decisions and pure muscle memory, while Izuku was more methodical and planned things ahead, dissecting and anticipating the others movement. In the end, however, while Kacchan had more strength, and experience, and honestly Izuku was probably closer to losing in every possible way, Kacchan was the one who wound up face first in the mat, arms bent at an awkward angle and legs put in a position where he would violate the ‘no crotch shot’ rule of the match if he tried anything. It was a cheap trick, especially if this was a _real_ fight, but if rules were meant to be broken, they were also meant to be exploited. 

Izuku simply had fought against a perfected version of Kacchans fighting style before. His mother.

Izuku rolled off Kacchan after his mother called the match, breathlessly laughing. 

Kacchan had shouted, also out of breath, for him to shut the hell up, but it held no bite. 

Later on, when they were both sipping water and talking about their match, Izuku told Kacchan that he could still call him Deku. He didn’t really care all that much anymore. Kacchan had glared at him, and swore he’d kick Izukus ass next time. Izuku had responded with a laugh and claimed he couldn’t wait.

In the end, Izuku was happy to say it was the start of a very nice, familiar friendship.

If Percy was a normal mortal, she would have been saddened looking up at the sky and seeing nothing but dark gray churning clouds for as far as the eye could see. But, she wasn’t normal and therefore she found immense joy seeing that rain was destined to fall any minute now. The rain always made Percy feel like she was free from all the problems in the world and back to being nothing more than a small boy whose biggest problem was protecting his mother from the horrors of Smelly Gabe. 

Percy sighed contently as she paused at a stoplight crosswalk. With the simple opportunity given to her, she took the hood of her jacket off to let the first few droplets of rain hit her hair and face. 

Currently, Percy was heading to the nearby park to make sure Izuku and his little friend Bakugou made it home safely. Normally she wouldn’t have bothered sense it was a walkable distance away and they were old enough to walk home on their own, but with the added factor of rain and a few rumors of suspicious, possible gang, activities happening Percy thought it’d be best to walk them home. 

Or, well, drag Bakugou by the ear back to her and Izuku's place and call his father to come pick him up. She had no doubt the stubborn boy would protest and say that he could walk home all by himself as it was his nature to be as independent and brash as possible, but it just so happened to be that Percy could be just as stubborn and extensive as he. To be honest, Percy hadn’t liked the blond boy at first, but since then she had come to realize that he wasn’t quite all that different from her younger self. He had a strong heart of a warrior, and he wanted to become the best that he could possibly be, and she couldn’t fault him for it. In addition, she also realized that he was a good thing for Izuku, as the unspoken rivalry that had formed after their very first spar had begun to grow more and more, and was sure to bloom into something amazing. So now, Percy was happy to mother Bakugou just a tad, even if it ended with him yelling at her a lot. 

Percy smirked subtly at the thought of Bakugou’s displeased face just as an umbrella appeared overhead. She startled at the sudden lack of raindrops and turned to see a man in a coat with an unseeable face holding it over her. 

Out of politeness, she muttered, “Thank you.” The man didn’t respond but nodded his head in confirmation that he had heard her.

Percy narrowed her eyes at the man, feeling an eerie feeling enter her soul. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something was wrong. While this man didn’t scream monster, (She had gotten quite used to seeing monsters from afar at this point). There was something off with him. Something that didn’t quite belong. 

Turning her head back to the crosswalk. The light post flicked back to giving the all clear to cross. Taking her first step, she notices the man walk step in step with her, following her across and continuing to walk with her down the road.

Back in the day, a slightly irritated Percy was not a good thing. She had had the tendency to blow things up when she got mad. However, that was when she was young. Now, she was older, and a parent. A parent that had to show little, but she hoped it did well for Izuku. 

“Do you need anything?” She finally asked the man. The last thing she needed was a stalker to be following her around everywhere.

The stranger paused, standing next to her and reached into his pocket. A single unbent envelope was taken out of his coat and given to her. She tried again to get a look at the man but it was futile. He still refused to show his face. 

Gingerly, she took the white letter and held it up. Tearing slowly at the folded close, she took out the letter that had a crystal look to it. 

**_“We found you.”_ **

The man said those words in sync as she read the three small words that were on the paper. Standing in place of the man was now someone in a simple t-shirt and jeans in the pouring rain. His sandy blonde hair threw her off guard, and reminded her of a certain former enemy of hers for a split second. Her eyes squinted in slight anger, and with lightning fast reflexes she went to stab him with Riptide.

Unfortunately for her, she was dealing with someone that happened to be one of the fastest Olympians. Despite normally being one of her favorites, right now Hermes was far from being her favorite. 

“ _What are you doing here Hermes_?” She said in Greek.

A wry yet sad grin appeared at his lips as he responded in kind, “ _Is there something wrong with wanting to check in on an old friend? Or is that no longer allowed since you ran away._ ”

She snorted but did not deny the fact. “ _A life without the gods is perhaps one of the best that one can have. Even you cannot deny that._ ” She told him. A few spectators finally took notice of them, but they couldn’t understand what was going on as the two spoke a long dead language. 

Closing the distance between the two of them, Percy brought her foot up to try and kick him in the head. With a narrow dodge, he moved to the right. Only to be sucker punched in the face and get tossed back a few more steps. His eyes shot up after that and he dodged a sword strike that was implanted into the ground. _Ttch._ Was the only thing that was heard from her. Cocking her arm back, she threw Riptide at him, directly aiming for his face. 

With wide open eyes, the man dodged to the side and watched in slight horror as he had little time to roll out of the way. 

“ _Now Perce is this all really necessary. I’m here to take you home._ ” At once Hermes knew those were the wrong words to say.

“ _Home? Home?_ ” The rain that had been around them froze in place and the bypassers watching the two have their fight in the middle of the street looked with wide eyes at what was going on around them. They believed it to be a quirk but the horror that grew was all the bit worth it in Hermes eyes.

Percy continued, “ _I find it interesting how differently the gods think of home as opposed to some lowly mortal like me. Well part mortal I should add._ ” She mentioned bitterly. Seeing the gods always got her emotions going. Not that she was angry and Hermes. It was his job to go out and find her and they both knew that. She was more disappointed at herself that she wasn’t more careful. She had made so many mistakes over the years.

Taking a deep breath, she allowed the water to continue to rain. Her wet eyes looked up, straight into Hermes’ eyes and directly into his soul. “ _Let me make one thing clear Hermes. I’m not leaving_.”

A tight smile appeared on his face. “ _It’s quite easy to tell yourself that Persephone Jackson. But are you able to tell the gods that to their face? Can you really tell your Patreon that you went against her word as her lieutenant and had a child? Izuku Midoriya is an interesting boy. Don’t you think?_ ”

“ _If you touch a hair on him_...” She let the threat loom over and Hermes gained his confidence that he had been missing. 

“ _See you soon-“_ His words got caught up in his throat as he took a kick to the balls. Despair and agony filled his face, collapsing to the floor he gasped for air. “ _W-Why?”_

She blinked once at him, then blinked twice. “ _Hermes, never have the gall to threaten my family ever again. I fear for your safety if you do._ ”

“You get him girl!” A younger woman cried out in English.

“Should we get him an ambulance?” Another muttered in Japanese. 

People begin talking and she made the mistake of looking up and around the area. A flash below her appeared and when she looked back he was nowhere to be seen.

Biting the inside of her tongue she walked to the park. She would accept her fate. Hopefully they wouldn't harm him in the process. That and she had a phone call to make. Someone had to take care of Izuku while she was gone.

For what seemed like the past month Izuku felt like his mother had been on edge, acting just ever slightly off. She seemed harsher in training, and heavens above that was saying something, she was jumpy and no longer liked going for walks outside, or well going outside much at all. She also didn’t like Izuku being gone for too long, or going over to Kacchans’ overnight. 

In the back of his mind, Izuku knew what it meant, but he didn’t acknowledge it, like if he brought attention to it the inevitable would come quicker. 

Then it happened. 

The night was peaceful, and soft as Izuku soundly slept under the sheets of his western style bed. It was as perfectly cliché and peaceful as a night could possibly be, which is probably why it all went to hell.

Izuku was jolted awake by his mother, her hands roughly shaking him and whispering his name. He blindly looked up at her tense gaze and through the murky fog covering Izuku's mind, he thought, ‘Oh it’s time to leave.’

This happened sometimes. His mother would come and tell him to pack everything in his room. He had till morning, anything he didn’t get in boxes and down to the living room by sunrise would be abandoned. 

He was already prioritizing items and things in his head on what he absolutely did not want to even risk leaving behind by the time he sat up. But as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he slowly realized what exactly was happening. 

They were leaving. No big deal. Izuku had long since stopped questioning why they had to move so suddenly and erratically. Every house was meant to be temporary. Home was a fluid concept to the highest degree, home was where his mother said it was, simple as that. But for the first time, Izuku _really_ thought of this temporary house as a _home_. He loved this place, he loved this town, and he actually had a _friend_ . He would be leaving Kacchan without any word or message _again_ , and he hated it. 

He didn’t want to leave. 

“M’ther,” Izuku mumbled under his breath sleepily, like a small child. “I don’ wanna le’ve. I like it her’.” 

His mother clenched her jaw, eyes swimming with emotions Izuku was too sleepy to process or recognize. 

She then moved her hands from Izuku's shoulders to cup his soft, round face.

“I know, child,” she whispered with a hard gulp. “Don’t worry, we’re not leaving.”

Izuku frowned. Then why did she wake him up…?

“We’re out of time anyway, I’m afraid,” She explained vaguely. Suddenly Izuku was very much so awake. 

“What?” He asked, eyes wide with concern. 

“Hush now,” she snapped. “And listen. I’m afraid I have to go. I’m not sure for how long and I deeply apologize. I thought they’d give up if I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with their bullshit anymore, but they refuse to give up.”

“Mother, what’s going on-“

“I said hush, Izuku.” His mother snapped a little firmer this time, and Izuku's eyes widened. She rarely called him Izuku. It was always ‘child’, or ‘boy’, but never ‘Izuku’. At first it confused him, but sense then it’s become something not unlike a nickname. So she was _definitely_ serious, and this situation was _dire_. 

His mother huffed again, “While I’m gone, you will stay here. I believe an old friend of mine will come to look after you and your blond friend. Please don’t feel bitter towards me, because I really do _care_ for you and I’m doing this for your sake. I _promise_ I will be back. I swear on the River Styx I’ll be back for you.” 

Thunder cracked outside, causing Izuku to flinch. 

“Do you understand, Izuku?”

Izuku forced himself to nod while fearful tears streamed down his face. 

“Good,” His mother brought him towards her chest for a quick hug. He didn’t understand what was going on. Who was after his mother? Who was taking her away from him? Why did she have to leave? A sob ripped through his throat, and he tried to memorize the sound of her heartbeat. He didn’t want to think about it but if this was the last time he saw her… 

After twenty seconds, his mother muttered under her breath, “Now sleep.”

And Izuku was out like a light before he even knew what she said. 


	3. Waking Up

The clouds were grey outside. An ominous feeling was beginning to creep into Percy as she sat in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee and a blue cookie that laid right beside it. She was doing something that she always regretted, letting her mind wander.

Her first thoughts were of her son. To this day she didn’t know why she had left the hunt so fast in order to adopt a child. She had practically left without a word from America and came all the way to Japan. A far journey that went over the sea. In hindsight, it was a good idea to come to a place as small as Japan. She knew that the gods visited here when they were feeling horny but otherwise it was remote.

She bit the inside of her cheek. The coffee below her soon getting cold. She looked at the half eaten cookie and sighed. She knew that she would have to go back eventually. She had a duty to the hunt and she doubted that Artemis would allow her to get up and walk away. Unlike the rest of the hunters that could have easily fled and disappeared without her knowing about it. 

Her eyes flickered to the clock, the annual meeting of the gods, the summer solstice would be ending momentarily. She had put a heavy enough sleep trick with the mist on Izuku that the boy would be out for easily a day, perhaps more so she wouldn’t have to worry about him. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the cookie into the garbage and got up. She could do the dishes another time or perhaps Nico could when he got here. 

She had called a big favor asking Nico to come and watch her child for him. It was a big risk but he was the only other partial immortal that she trusted with her life. All others had an ulterior motive behind them and could possibly harm the boy somehow. Nico had always been there for her. Whether he had been infatuated with her when she was younger might have had something to do with it but she was sure that his feelings had changed since then.

Walking upstairs, her rough hands made touch with the smooth railing. It was going to be a long day. The sun would be coming up in a few hours but Artemis would be here before then. The solstice meeting normally only lasted an hour and when Hermes would tell them where she was, her patron would be here immediately, perhaps even leave while the meeting was occurring.

She found her way to Izuku’s room. The covers were tightly snugged around him and the boy was murmuring in his sleep. Her pride and joy lay only feet from her but soon that would be over. She would leave him and not see him for perhaps years. Nico would do a good job raising him, she had faith. Hopefully he would continue his training, though perhaps not as rough as her.

The boy was pale, raising his hand to his forehead, she watched him murmur in his sleep. The words were coherent but he had a tendency to begin talking at a rapid pace that few could understand. This even occurred to him while he slept. Whether it was about a new superhero or a new technique. The boy had more information about all of the superheroes then perhaps even the government paid attention too.

Outside her window, a crack of lightning was heard and a glow lit up the window, making it unable to see out of. The white light slowly withdrew and the front door was opened.

Percy felt her heart rate go up. She was Perseus Jackson, a girl with too many titles to count and had done countless things that people had thought impossible. She did them with a smile on her face and people to back her up. She was unbeatable when it came to fighting and the most important thing of all was she did not get scared.

And yet, her heart was thumping loud enough that she could hear it over Izuku’s random spurts of muttering. She could feel her hand that was now clenching onto an armrest begin to grow sweaty. She moved in her seat, the squeaking of the chair beginning to grow louder each time she moved.

‘All I have to do is convince Artemis that I can stay. It shouldn’t prove too difficult.’ While it sounded easy to say to herself. Doing it to prove otherwise was going to be damn near impossible. The goddess of the hunt was just as hard headed as the demigod. Perhaps even more than Percy. Taking her hand from her armrest, she grabbed her leg and squeezed. 

The clink of boots echoed through the house as they walked up the stairs before pausing at the door. There was a moment of silence and Percy could feel the cold stair that was on her. Percy refused to look back though and instead focused on her son that was right in front of her, trying to capture every detail of how he looked before she would have to leave.

“Perseus.” The word was said with anger and sadness. A firm tone that was driven behind it made Percy squeeze her leg once more. But Percy refused to show weakness to her Patron. She would have to convince her that she could stay. She had to change Artemis’s mind somehow.

She was waiting for a response. “Yes, my lady?” She whispered quietly but it was heard clearly throughout the room. A hand gripped onto her shoulder tightly and Percy tensed up in anticipation. This time the demigod hadn’t heard her move. She was as quiet as a snake that had slithered in and was now holding onto her, refusing to let go. 

“Look at me.” The voice spoke in a daunting tone yet Percy still refused. She couldn’t meet her lady’s eyes. If she did then she would cave in and lose. She would listen to her lady and leave Izuku. She couldn’t do that. She had to stay and guide him, the gods be damned. “Look at me!” Her voice thundered and echoed the room, making Percy flinch and obey the goddess. Her head tilted to meet the girl that was standing over her.

Artemis was in her young adult form, not bothering to take the time to switch from when she was at the solstice, despite how much she hated it. Her auburn hair flowed beautifully and her yellow eyes had a zeal mixed with an untold expression as she stared down at Percy. “Lieutenant.”

Percy turned away and looked down at her son. “I told you to give that position to Phoebe.”

“Unfortunately for you, she refused the position rather quickly. Stating, ‘Tell Percy to take her head out of her ass and to get back here.’” Artemis retorted dryly. The hand on her shoulder went slack and Artemis’s eyes shifted away from Percy and to her son Izuku. “So this has been the consort of all my problems.”

Percy’s eyes left Izuku’s sleeping form and turned to look at Artemis. Her eyes had already left the boy and were fully focused on Percy. The goddess reached up and cupped Percy’s face in her hands. “You made a promise to me.”

A wry grin appeared at the demigod’s lips. “Perhaps I took a note from the gods and decided that I’m not very good at keeping promises.” It was the wrong thing to say as Artemis picked Percy up from where she sat, cupping her face and anger clouding her judgment.

“I have lost two lieutenants within ten years. I refuse to lose a third.” Her voice was final. 

Percy was not done yet, she had become a mother. A mother for a boy that she had never planned on becoming. “I have a duty to my son.”

“Then I’ll get rid of the son. Considering-” A kick to the gut sent Artemis flying backward into the wall. A loud crack in the wood wall was heard and it was completely destroyed.

“You will not hurt him.” Percy glared at her goddess. Anger was on her face. “You will never harm a fly on him nor will anyone else My Lady.”

Artemis was mad. It had been a while since Percy had ever seen her mad. The last time that the goddess was even slightly angry was when she couldn’t do anything as Zoe or Thalia died. The goddess was normally well reserved and not biting at people’s insults. “You made a promise to me.” Her voice shrieked out in anger. “You told me that you would be by my side through day and night when you held Thalia as she passed. You are what you are because of me Perseus Orion Jackson!” 

She halted herself after that. This was different for once, for the first time, she wasn’t mad at someone hurting her hunters, she was mad at her own Lieutenant. One of her own Lieutenants was not wanting to go home with her. She technically hadn’t broken any rules, something that the daughter of the sea had always been very good at avoiding and something she would have to remedy right after this.

With a sigh, she stopped in her tracks. “Let’s go.” Her voice sounded tired and she gave in to it. There was nothing that she could do about the boy but Percy would end up coming with her. She didn’t have a choice. She was the lieutenant of the hunt and nothing would stop in her tracks. She had after all made a promise to her and her hunters. She was their protector in their times of need. She would be by her side through thick and thin and would have her back even when Artemis decided to make less than admirable choices.

Percy looked as if she wanted to say more, her hand slowly withdrew from her sword Anaklusmos and she looked down at the boy who had been sleeping soundly through their entire ordeal. “Fine.” She spoke through gritted teeth. She would end up losing in this battle. Percy had made a promise and she had been gone from the hunt for far too long. 

She glanced back once more at her son. He was still growing and still needed a guiding hand. Hopefully, the person she asked would at least be able to watch and train him just enough.

“Are you done yet?” A bored voice drawled from the other side of the room. In the shadows stood a deathly prince with jet black hair and a tired look on his face. 

Ignoring the look from the goddess, Nico walked right up to Percy and held out his hand. “I expect to be paid for this once he’s grown up, I hope you know.” 

“Didn’t know you needed the money so badly, your father gives you more than you need to survive,” Percy grunted at her friend as she threw the keys and a bag of drachmas into his hand. “I expect to at least have monthly updates on how he’s doing, Nico, or there will be consequences.” She warned her friend with a stern look.

With a mocking salute, he gave her a tired smile. “Yes, M’lady. You will be given the most pristine news about your very old toddler.” With a bow, he gracefully got up and looked up at the goddess in the room. “Hi, Lady Artemis, finally stealing Percy back to do her job?”

Artemis lifted one perfect eyebrow at the demigod, ignoring the whole charade the two had just done. “Indeed, I suppose that I will be seeing you at my camp more often now?”

He lifted his hands and shrugged, “It’s not every day the Queen of Demigods asks a favor to the lowly messenger of death mind you. Hopefully, there will be nothing bad but perhaps you could tell your hunters not to shoot me?”

The moon goddess placed a hand on her hip,”It depends, how often is Percy actually making you give her messages?”

“Once a wee-” A hand went up and slapped him through another wall. 

Turning her gaze from Nico, Artemis looked over to Percy who had a deadpan face. “Is there something wrong My lady?”

It’s like she was never gone from our world. “No, let’s go. Now close your eyes.” With Artemis glancing once more at the boy who was laying on the bed, they flashed away from the house and hopefully, forever.

After his mother's sudden disappearance, Izuku couldn’t find it in him to go to school, and Di Angelo didn’t stop him. So for the next week and a half, he stayed on the couch curled under several blankets, and mindlessly watching his favorite comedy anime’s in a vain attempt to feel better… Although judging by the fact he watched through blurry eyes, barely had an appetite, and had a hard time sleeping, he had a feeling it wasn’t working as well as he wanted it to.

Izuku was incredibly worried for his mother. He wanted to know what happened, why she had to leave, if she was even okay! And deep down he wondered about Di Angelo too. He seemed nice enough, but he was gone most of the time, so he still didn’t know much about his new caretaker. Where did he go? What did he do? Izuku had no clue, just that he’d be back eventually. 

Funny enough, Di Angelo was more emotive and expressive than his mother even was in all the years Izuku knew her, and yet he never knew what the older man was thinking…

Izuku let a long dejected sigh and clutched his tiny stuffed plushie of All Might tightly to his chest. His head rolled back onto the cushions to stare at the ceiling. He really needed to eat something. He hadn’t had anything to eat in over 24 hours… Great, now he had a headache. 

Izuku groaned, then covered his aching eyes with his elbow, and fumbled around for the controller so he could pause his show, all the while keeping his stuffed plush close. His head was absolutely pounding, but he guessed that’s what happens when you do nothing but stare at a screen for several days on end. It was a little strange how it only seemed to get worse and worse with each passing second, he could practically hear his head thump-

“Oi! Deku! Are you alive or not!” Izuku's eyes flashed open, and he winced away from the natural light encouraging his headache on. Then, he looked over his shoulder towards the front door. 

Kacchan? He pondered for a second, before coming to the embarrassing realization that the pounding noise wasn't from his head it was from the front door. Izuku blushed bright red, suddenly feeling excruciatingly tired. 

He really, really needed to get some sleep, now that he thought about it… 

The banging against the front door snapped Izuku once again out of half-asleep delirium, this time sounding more desperate somehow. So Izuku finally and forcefully pulled himself up onto wobbly, baby deer legs and made his way over to answer the door. 

He had to squint against the daylight that wasn’t doing anything for what he was pretty sure was now a migraine but once his eyes adjusted he saw exactly who he expected: Kacchan. Who was wearing his favorite black skull shirt, baggy pants, and had a school bag slung over his shoulder. He was also snarling and his face was flushed red with concern with a raised fist in the air. He did not seem happy, even after he laid eyes on Izuku and dropped his hand to his side. In fact, the very sight of Izuku seemed to piss his blond friend off even more. 

“What the fuck?” Kacchan stepped back, somehow mixing disgust and worry perfectly into a single emotion as his scrutinizing eyes trailed up and down the greenettes sickly frame. Izuku didn’t even know if there was a word for it, but it made him force a dreary smile. He had wanted to let Kacchan know he was okay for a while but he didn’t have his number. 

“Hey, Kacchan,” He greeted as he rubbed at his eyes, voice hoarse with misuse. “Nice of you to stop by.” 

The blonds eyes narrowed into a glare, then as he looked directly into Izukus eyes, he bluntly said, “You look like complete shit.”

Izuku flinched, resenting that. Sure he looked worse for wear but he could’ve looked a lot worse. He still showered, and put on new clothes everyday. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and combed his curly green hair. He didn’t look like complete shit, he was sure of that. However, before Izuku could respond Kacchan pushed passed him by force into the house, glaring around the front hallway, and wandering into the living area on the left. 

“I thought you fucking died again,” Kacchan told him, now sounding numb and hallow. He stopped walking when his eyes landed on the messy bundle of warm blankets on the couch. 

Izuku sighed, quickly closing and locking the door before joining his new guest in the living room. 

“Well… I’m not,” He replied awkwardly. His eyes longingly shifted to the couch. He really wanted to sit down, to sleep for the next couple days, but he also needed to be a good host, especially since this was his friend checking up on him. “Sorry it’s a mess, need anything to drink?”

Kacchan directed his permanent glare at him once again. “Forget it,” he growled, “Why the hell weren’t you at school all week? Are you sick? You look like roadkill, what the hell happened?”

“Hey, I do not look like-”

“Shut the fuck up, those eyebags, and those ugly ass pajamas don’t lie. You look like shit.”

Despite how wrong Kacchan was (his eye bags weren’t that bad, thank you, and so what if his pajamas were old and worn out? They were at least clean), Izuku couldn’t help but smile, “Careful, Kacchan. People might start thinking you actually care.” 

“Oh, fuck you!” Kacchan snapped. “The only reason why I give two shits is because if you're going to get into UA you need good grades and I am not helping your pathetic ass when you’re up to your eyeballs in missed school assignments. So spill it! What the hell happened to you?! And where the hell is Jackson? Isn’t your mom home at this time?”

The tired smile slipped off Izuku's face quicker than Kacchan could blink. Then, he slumped back onto the couch and weakly clutched his All Might plush back to his chest, desperate for any comfort. 

Kacchan stared at the greenette on the couch, confused at the sudden but almost expected change of atmosphere. After he set his book bag on the ground, he crossed his arms and hesitantly sat down on the other end of the couch. 

“My mothers gone, Kacchan,” Izuku admitted after a while of just sitting in silence. Kacchan did a double take, not believing for a single second that he heard correctly due to his stupid hearing aids. But then, upon request, Izuku repeated the same thing again, louder and firmer, and he knew that he heard perfectly the first time. 

“What do you mean she’s gone?” Kacchan asked. 

Izuku sniffed, and went on to explain what happened. What he remembered from the night his mother left, and a little bit of what Di Angelo said to him earlier. In the end, he didn’t have very much to say, as he had very little information, but somehow it felt like it took days to tell Kacchan everything. 

By the time Izuku was done, Kacchan was positively fuming. About halfway through the explanation he had gotten up and started pacing around the room, eyes dark and full of murderous intent. 

“There’s no way in hell she would just up and fucking abandon you,” Kacchan snapped as the sound of popping and sparks filled the air. Izuku flinched away, having the urge to jump behind the couch and hope he didn’t break anything. 

Not because of what happened when they were kids. No, Izuku barely remembered what happened to him as a tiny child, although maybe instinct ran deeper than his memories… Anyway, he actually flinched away because Kacchan had been doing Quirk Training and his explosions were getting bigger and stronger by the day, but with the extra strength came the inability to properly control his quirk, and Kacchans explosions tended to cause decent damage to the surrounding property when allowed to run wild. 

“Do you know if she got in trouble with any yakuza or some shit?” Kacchan had stopped pacing around the room like a madman and faced Izuku with his arms crossed across his chest and an ugly scowl decorating his face. 

Izuku shook his head, “She never mentioned anything like that…” He trailed off, forcing himself to ponder the dark thoughts that had lingered in the back of his mind not just for the past few weeks, but for the past couple years. ”Sure, we moved around a lot, but it’s been like that sense I was adopted. Never stay in one place for very long, you know? I think the longest we’ve ever settled down was seven months? I never questioned it because I didn’t really care. I mean it wasn’t like I had anyone to get attached too wherever we moved. But I admit it did feel like we were running away from something sometimes but what—”

Izuku loudly yelped when he was abruptly cut off by a shoe to the face. He held his nose, eyes the size of saucers gawking at a seething Kacchan, one foot shoeless. 

“Owe?!” Izuku shouted on pure instinct, not feeling any real pain due to the shock of it all. The shoe was thrown very hard either but… but… why?! 

“You’ve been running away from something and you never once questioned it?! Are you fucking kidding me?! I should throttle you for being such an idiot!” Kacchan looked seconds away from throwing another shoe, so Izuku held his plush out in front of him like a shield. 

“I-I said th-that I didn’t care!” Izuku weakly defended, face turning into a tomato. “I never m-made any clo-ose friends anywhere we-we went. I ki-kinda liked seeing different p-parts of the coun-country too!”

The excuse resulted in another shoe being thrown, harder this time, but Izuku still managed to block it. 

At least that’s his last shoe… Izuku thought gratefully seconds before Kacchan reached for one of the pillows next to his feet. Spoke too soon…!

Kacchan held the pillow by one of its corners and tossed it over his shoulder like a mace. 

“So your mother is caught up in some nasty shit,” Kacchan concluded darkly. “But you are positive you don’t know what?”

“No!” Izuku shrunk into the couch, afraid of being hit again. “She never said anything! She doesn’t have any tattoos! And she adopted me! Why would someone running from any yakuza adopt a little kid! And! And! And, she’s American! She moved here when she was twenty and adopted me when she was twenty-three! How could she have joined the yakuza and adopted me in such a short amount of time!”

Izuku has so many other thoughts whirling at lightning speed inside his head as he continues to mindlessly ramble. He knew what Kacchan was saying was true, he was thinking it, but it was easier to play devil's advocate if it meant he could deny the facts set in front of him a little longer. Even if it caused his heart to start pumping like it wanted to explode. 

“You don’t have to join the yakuza to see something you shouldn’t have, shitstain.” Kacchan replied coolly, the symbol of logic in this argument. “Plus it could be a New York yakuza or whatever the fuck they call it in the States.”

“I think they call it a mob—”

“I swear to fuck, Deku!”

Izuku flinched away deeper into the couch. He was trembling, and his stomach clenched in terror. 

It had been over a week since his mother left, but it was like the reality of his situation was only just hitting him. He had been avoiding it, hiding from it, and now it was right in front of him and literally hitting him in the face in the form of Kacchan. No amount of desperate coping was going to change that. 

Kacchans demon-like form melted away upon seeing Izuku trembling, just seconds away from balling his eyes out. He sighed, borderline annoyed, but he sat down next to Izuku anyway. He did nothing to attempt to comfort Izuku, not really, just frowned with worry lines crinkled around his eyes. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the tension thick enough between the two friends from worry and fear you could see it, but as time passed it slowly died down.

Izuku glanced at Kacchan after a minute, still sniffling. Kacchan wasn’t very good at giving any form of comfort. He commented when he was supposed to only listen. His words were harsh towards those wishing for reassurance. He was a bit too blunt when asked for advice, and he was awkward when it came to physical affection. But, he tried. He really did care when it came to the people who wiggled their way into his heart, and Izuku personally appreciated it, because right now, all he needed was to know that he had a friend that cared for him. Something Kacchan was willing to provide, if in his own way. 

“Shut up,” Kacchan muttered under his breath, falling back against the couch. Izuku has been trying to even his breaths and to stop the slowly dropping tears rolling down his cheeks but it hadn’t been working. “Jackson is strong as fuck, she’ll come back after everything is sorted and it’s safe.” Izuku nodded along numbly. “So what are you going to do until then? You can’t stay here by yourself.”

Izuku sniffed and whipped more of his tears away.

“What?” He choked. 

Kacchan groaned, even more annoyed, “What are you going to do? Now that your mother is MIA?”

Izuku went back over his conversation with Kacchan and realized he hadn’t said anything about Di Angelo. Quickly, he stuttered out an explanation about his new caretaker. About halfway through his explanation, Kacchan had turned to look at him with a terrifyingly slack look, and a fire sparking behind his eyes. 

Izuku slowly raised his arms up for protection towards the end of his explanation

This time he got a pillow whacking him several times over the head.

“You really are fucking retarded, you know that!?” Kacchan shouted as he assaulted Izuku. “How do you know this stranger isn’t a part of whatever your mother is running away from?!”

“He seems nice?!” Izuku argued back from his protective ball form. Each hit made him flinch and his arms were starting to hurt.

“He seems nice?! Do you have any idea how many people have died because an evil person ‘seemed nice’, you idiot!? I thought you were a hero nerd, nerd!”

“Would you stop hitting me!”

“You’re lucky I haven’t killed your ass!”

“Mother said she had someone coming to look after me and Di Angelo was the one who showed up!”

“That!” Whack! “Doesn’t mean!” Whack! “He’s!” Whack! Whack! “Trustworthy!!”

Kacchan's arms finally got tired after a few more assaults but he still held his trusted pillow out in front of him, ready to perform another attack if called for. 

Izuku hesitated to peek through his arms. The other boy still looked pissed and he was panting, but he no longer had that deadly fire in his eyes so he guessed that meant he calmed down.

Kacchan huffed, “Where even is this damn psychopath?”

Izuku lowered his arms, still shaking like a leaf, “I don’t know. He leaves everyday at around eight and he comes back sometime around four. He said one time he’s job hunting. I don’t know.” 

“Job hunting even on the weekend?” Kacchan raised an eyebrow questioningly. He snorted bitterly, “What a fucking liar.”

Izuku groaned and set his face in his hands. He didn’t know anything anymore. 

Kacchan grumbled under his breath and reached for his school bag not too far away on the ground. From his bag emerged his phone.

“Well it’s obvious you can’t stay here. Not until we know that this guy isn’t a psychopath.” Kacchan stated factly, and began to tap at his phone's screen. 

Izuku groaned half heartedly, now curled into a ball with his head in his knees. A logical progression he argued, as he did not believe for a second that was an actual possibility and it made him even more depressed.

“And where would I go?” He asked hollowly, not expecting an answer.

“With me.” Izuku bolted back into a sitting position to gawk at Kacchan, still tapping away at his phone with his thumbs. He said it so simply, so obviously like he had just told a child the weather. “You can stay with me and my parents for a few weeks or more.”

“I can’t do that!” Izuku jumped up and off the couch to loudly protest. When Kacchans scowling face turned up to face him, he dared to glare back. “If he is crazy, then he could hurt you!”

“Strength in numbers or some shit, I don’t care,” Kacchan growled back. “You. Can’t. Stay. Here. Alone.”

“I can’t just leave either!”

“If he’s ‘nice’ like you say he is then he will understand! This is fucking weird and dangerous and I will drag you by the teeth if I have too!”

Izuku stared, speechless. Kacchan wasn’t even yelling all that loudly anymore, but somehow he sounded more forceful and final than all those times he spent shouting at the top of his lungs combined. He wasn’t going to let this go. He wasn’t even looking at him anymore. Just tapping away at his phone with a little frown on his face. 

Izuku sat down, defeated. He wasn’t sure if this would work. How this was going to work, but it did make the most logical sense. He knew nothing about his new caretaker. His mother was gone. He had no family. He was alone all over again. If there was any place even remotely promised to be safe, then he should head there, but… it still had so many problems. Kacchans parents… Di Angelo… everything… But, Kacchan was doing it anyway, or at least trying to.

It warmed Izuku's heart, and made him feel like crying all over again.

“You’re going to be a great hero, Kacchan,” Izuku muttered under his breath, surprising even himself, but he meant it just the same. 

Kacchan grunted dismissively, “Not doing this to be heroic, you idiot. Consider this payment for treating you like crap when we were little shits.”

Izuku snorted, in his mind Kacchan proved his point. 

The house filled with silence as Kacchan focused solely on his phone and Izuku stared off into nothing. Eventually Izuku couldn’t take the quiet and mumbled to ask if he could turn the TV on. When he got the go ahead Izuku went back to watching his show that had been paused for over half an hour. 

As it turns out, Kacchan quickly recognized the anime he was watching despite it being extremely old, and between texting a light, pleasant conversation took place about their favorite characters, episodes and their opinions on the remakes that had come out since the original aired decades ago. A welcomed change of pace to the hitting and yelling and tension from earlier. 

Then two things happened.

First, Kacchan jumped up on his hind legs, and demanded Izuku pause the TV again. Immediately, the greenette had an idea what news had Kacchan smirking all smug like that. 

Second, before Kacchan could tell him his exciting news, the front door opened and gently shut, cutting them both off before they had a chance to speak. 

Izuku peered over the top of the couch and saw exactly who he expected. Di Angelo, looking tired and run down like always, with a few bags of McDonalds clenched in his hand. 

For all Kacchans lecturing and hitting, Izuku still didn’t mind Di Angelo all that much, he still seemed nice to him, and he hoped that the older man could prove that he wasn’t dangerous or evil soon. 

“Hi, Di Angelo,” Izuku awkwardly greeted from his spot on the couch. Kacchan cursed under his breath, and stood up to face the newcomer with a stiff posture and a mean face. 

Di Angelo turned around, revealing his concerningly pale face. 

“Hey, kid,” Di Angelo greeted, waving awkwardly back at Izuku before facing Kacchan. He assessed the boy up and down. “I’m guessing this is your blond friend Percy mentioned? What’s he doing here?”

Before Izuku could respond, respectfully, Kacchan beat him to it, “Making sure you aren't going to hurt him, asshole.”

Di Angelo blinked, taken aback by the accusation, or maybe from the cursing, who knows honestly...

“Sorry,” Di Angelo said, stepping closer to Kacchan like he was a wild dog he didn’t want to anger any further. A wise assessment. “I don’t think we properly greeted each other. I’m Nico Di Angelo, nice to meet you. You are?” 

Kacchan, who was just nearly as tall as Di Angelo, was not impressed in the slightest. In fact, like many things, it only seemed to piss him off.

“None of your goddamn business, Pale-Face,” He snarked, then he turned back around to face Izuku, who was yelling at him about being polite. “My parents said it was fine, go pack your shit.” 

Izuku's voice died in his throat, as he anxiously glanced between Di Angelo and Kacchan. He gulped, “I still need to ask Di Angelo.” 

Di Angelo frowned, now it was his turn to glance between the other two, “Ask me what?”

“Well you see,” Izuku had no idea what he was going to say. He didn’t want to offend his new caretaker if he was a nice person, nor did he want to anger him if he was evil, so he needed to come up with a convincing lie as to why he needed to stay with the Bakugou’s for a few weeks. He had none, but he needed to come up with something right now. 

“He’s coming to stay with me and my folks for a few weeks,” Kacchan interrupted with a growl. “I don’t trust your suspicious ass.”

Izuku and Di Angelo stared at Kacchan in disbelief. Di Angelo, because that wasn't what he was expecting at all. Izuku, because he couldn’t believe Kacchan would just give them away like that. 

Izuku began to stutter out… words. He had no clue how he was going to salvage this one. Damn you, Kacchan!

Di Angelo quickly composed himself, shaking the shock from his head. 

“I guess that’s fair,” the adult muttered, running a pale, bone-y hand through his death black hair. 

The two teens froze, surprised to say the least. 

“S… seriously?” Izuku asked hopefully, eyes wide already with appreciation. Di Angelo nodded. 

“Yeah, you can go.” Izuku instantly relaxed, and turned to Kacchan with a smug smile on his face. Kacchan stuck his tongue out like the mature child he was, as he still didn’t believe Di Angelo wasn’t just putting on airs. 

“However, on one condition,” Di Angelo said, calling for the boys’ attention once again. “You need to stop by everyday. Percy told me to watch you, and I intend to keep all my promises to her. Understand?”

Izuku nodded, and so did Kacchan after a couple minutes. 

He really hoped Di Angelo was a good person after all this. 

* * *

Staying with the Bakugou’s wasn’t half as bad as Izuku originally expected. Dare he say it, it was kind of fun. The two friends got to help each other out with schoolwork, which Izuku desperately needed after his two week long absence. They found new common interests to talk, and sometimes argue about, like their shared taste in decades old anime, and video games. And, of course, they spent hours rambling about different heroes, heroes history, and their dream of being heroes themselves.

It was also nice getting to know Kacchans family. His father, who insisted that he just be called Masaru, was actually very nice and kind. He quickly learned that he liked talking to the only soft spoken person in the bakugou household. On the other hand, Kacchans mother, who said Mitsuki is fine, was a carbon copy of Kacchan, but female. She was a bit meaner, harsher, and louder, and sometimes the arguments she had with her own son made Izuku uncomfortable, but she did seem to genuinely care about her family so Izuku chose to ignore it. Plus, she was constantly working so they didn’t get to talk much anyway. 

Overall, Izuku didn’t mind his extended sleepover with Kacchan. 

In addition, as promised, Izuku, with Kacchan, visited Di Angelo as many times as humanly possible. They went directly after school was out on the weekdays and visited around noon on the weekends. At first Kacchan wasn’t happy about potentially being in the mits of a yakuza thug, but after two weeks Kacchan began to admit that Di Angelo seemed… well… nice. He was always there whenever they stopped by, explaining that he managed to finally get a night job and that’s why he could stay home during the day, so they got to know a lot about him. He was still just as vague, closed off and awkward as ever, but he could talk for hours about card games, board games, his family and his memories from living in The States. He also cooked really good Italian food, and was just as delicious blue cookies as Percy.

But what Izuku assumed really got Kacchan to warm up the guy was the sparing. 

A week after Izuku's agreement temporarily stayed with Kacchan, they visited Di Angelo and they decided to head to the small gym in the back of the house to spar. After a few warmups, the black haired man came to check on them and offered to spar with them. Not seeing any reason to disagree, they said sure. 

Di Angelo had... a very unique fighting style. He was patient and cold, dodging all attacks and refusing to move around all that much, instead choosing to stand his ground like if he took too many steps from where he started he’d fall off the face of the earth. A defender above all else, Izuku quickly concluded, but when he did attack, he delicately dealt out harsh, swift and sometimes even fatal movements. He was slow, but efficient, very different from what Izuku and Kacchan were used to. Yet, just like Izuku's mothers, he had perfected his style to its greatest potential, and it was a riot trying to pin him down, which neither of them did.

On the way home, Kacchan swore up and down that he was going to beat ‘Death Breath’ into the ground the next time they saw each other. Izuku had snorted, remembering that was exactly what he said when his mother defeated him a little over six months ago. 

The remaining three weeks went by in a flash after the first one, and by the end Izuku was confident that Di Angelo was a nice person and wasn’t lying when he said that he and Percy knew each other. So he told Kacchan at the end of week three that he would be going back to his own home when the agreement was over. As much as he liked the Bakugou household he knew he couldn’t stay forever.

Kacchan didn’t protest, and that was enough for Izuku. 

The day before Izuku was planning on going back to staying with Di Angelo, he got the spontaneous urge to go for a walk around the neighborhood, and that’s exactly what he did, with Kacchan tagging along because Mitsuki forced him.

The sun was an hour or so from setting over the horizon, the air was warm from the hot sun beating down all day, but the breeze was chilly as they strolled down the sidewalk with no particular destination in mind. Kacchan spent the first couple minutes complaining up and down about how his feet were going to fall off. Izuku felt bad for him, and suggested after ten minutes that they head back. After all, the other boy had spent an hour and a half that day quirk training at the Quirk gym not too far away and another half an hour running. His feet were without a doubt sore as hell and now he was being forced to walk to who knows where, it didn’t seem very fair. However, Kacchan refused his offer to go home and even stopped complaining. 

Then, randomly it seemed, the topic of school came up, Izuku had no idea how, and they spent their walk rambling to each other about their goal of getting into UA. They’d been talking about it for over four months, and Kacchan even wrote up a detailed plan on how to get them both in. For himself, he needed to keep his grades high, shoot his stamina up a little higher due to his energy consuming fighting style, polish his fighting a little more, and Quirk Train like all hell was going to break loose on their entrance exam day. So he set aside time to diligently study everyday. On school days he exercised and went for evening jogs. On weekends he went to the gym to train his Quirk for several hours, on top of his exercises and stamina training. Then of course, he sparred with Izuku and Di Angelo as much as he could.

As for Izuku, he had a bit more to do. He needed to get his grades up (no C’s, no more than 2 B’s, rest A’s. Leaving school had seriously shot his grades...), needed to build up some muscle (lean), and needed to figure out naturally occurring weapons to use on the practical part of the entrance exam if need be, sense he had no quirk. So Izuku was told to eat a surprising amount of food, do simple exercises like push ups, and a lot of running. He also had Kacchan tutoring him three times a week, and had been practicing his fighting style with staff-like objects of various sizes and weights as they were the type of weapon most likely to be on any battlefield. 

UA Academy kept its practical portion of the exam under lock and key. The school claimed they changed it up every year so no one would know, but rumors said it was the same every year, and no one knew what it was either way. Some said it was a Hunger Games style fight to the last person standing. Others claimed it was an obstacle course. Some said it was a traditional physical exam. So they both needed to prepare for anything.

As they gave each other advice and tweaked certain parts of their shared plan, a thought nagged the back of Izuku’s mind. Truthfully it had been nagging him for the better part of a few months, but as the days went on it only seemed to get worse and worse, until Izuku couldn’t help it. 

“Hey, Kacchan,” Izuku said out of nowhere. The light was low, they’d been walking for a lot longer than Izuku had originally planned. The sun was setting over the horizon, coating the sidewalk in red and orange. “Do you really think I’ll get into UA?” 

His entire life he’d been surrounded by people who saw him as a poor disabled kid to stay away from at best, and use as a kickball at worst. He was… nothing, really. Nothing special. Quirkless. Deku.

Kacchan tilted his head up the darkening sky, “Sure, why the hell not?” It wasn’t what Izuku expected but then again this was Kacchan.

“How do you know?” He pressed for some actual reassurance. 

“Nighteye.” Kacchan answered without a moment's hesitation. 

Izuku frowned, “Sir Nighteye?”

“Who else, loser?” Kacchan snarked back. “He has a fucking terrible quirk for heroism when you think about it. He’s claimed multiple times he can only use it a set amount of times so he has to use it sparingly. Yeah, great Quirk to go hopping around with All Might of all damn people. So even if, let’s just say, he fought fifty percent of his battles without his Quirk, can you honestly tell me you can tell if he’s using his quirk or not in any of the videos you’ve seen online, because I sure as hell can’t, and he’s still a badass. So yeah, if that fucker can be All Mights sidekick with a lame ass Quirk like his then I’m sure you can get into UA without one.”

Izuku jaw dragged across the floor in shock, that was definitely not what he was expecting. Sure he wanted reassurance but… but that… 

Izuku felt tears prick at the corner of his eyes. Damnit! He really did have the best friend in the world, or at least he felt like he did as he wiped away his tears and blubbered how much he appreciated Kacchan. 

Kacchan had screamed at him to shut up, all the while blushing bright red. Eventually the blond led Izuku away to a random place to sit down, relax, stop crying, and rest their aching (for Kacchan throbbing but he ignored it) feet. Kacchan also took the opportunity to text his parents that they were heading back all. 

Mitsuki and Masaru immediately started typing and Kacchan promptly set his phone to Do Not Disturb to ignore the tongue lashing for being out for so long. 

“Would you stop crying!” Kacchan exclaimed for the umpteenth time to a still emotional Izuku. They were sitting on a bench, their backs to a… well it was supposed to be a beach but it was more of a dumpster nowadays. “I didn’t even say anything! What the fuck is wrong with you! You still have a long way to go, dipshit!”

“B-but it-it was so-o nice!” Izuku cried into his hands. “No-o ones ever-ever s-said some-something like-ike tha-at to me-e-e.” 

“Well tough shit because I’m never saying it again either if you don’t calm your ass down! You're still too thin! You need some more muscle on your bones!” 

Izuku didn’t really care. He was already well aware of what he needed to work on, so it didn’t feel like the insult it was meant to be. 

Kacchan sighed dramatically and started to push Izuku off the bench as a final attempt to shut him up. 

Izuku quickly stopped crying and looked around the unfamiliar place. He gingerly, voice hoarse and stutter-y, asked if they were lost, which earned him a hit across the head.

“No! We’re not even that far from the house,” Kacchan growled, then pointed at the beach-dumpster behind him. “We looped around a while back. It’s Takoba Municipal Beach Park.”

Izuku did a double take, turning around to look at what he expected to be a beautiful beach but only saw a bunch of… trash. 

He remembered Takoba Beach, vaguely, but he remembered it. He used to come here all the time with Kacchan and a few other friends. 

At Izukus house, they explored the forest. At Kanchans they ran up and down the beach. 

He remembers when Kacchan threw a ball of wet sand at him like a snowball. 

Good times. 

What the hell happened. 

Kacchan snorted, and shrugged. Then he stood up and motioned for Izuku to follow, which he did. On the way home he explained what had happened in the past ten or so years. The beach was closed for a year or two due to unknown reasons, causing most of the caretakers of the beach to quit or leave. Trash started piling up from the currents, and soon people used it to dump their shit for free instead of driving to the closest dump. Now it was… well it looked like that, and no one had the time or money to clean it.

Izuku looked back over his shoulder in the direction of the polluted beach. 

“I wish we could clean it,” Izuku muttered, whipping away the last of his tears from Kacchans kind words. 

A lightbulb went off above Kacchans head.

“Oi!” Kacchan elbowed Izuku hard in the ribs, knocking some of the wind out of his lungs. “I got an idea. It’s a surefire way to get into UA!”

“And what’s that?” Izuku coughed breathlessly.

“We clean up a part of the beach,” Kacchan motioned to himself and Izuku. “We’ll both be able to get exercise in, muscle, stamina, and it’ll look great on our applications.” Kacchan smirked, rubbing his hands evilly. He was liking this idea more and more. He couldn’t believe it took Izuku balling his eyes out next to the beach to come up with the idea.

Of course Izuku agreed to the amazing idea, excited and eyes wide with hope and awe. Then, abruptly, Izuku dramatically calmed down with a far off look in his eye. He turned to face Kacchan, hesitated, feeling like it would be awkward, and it was, but he also felt like there was no better time to give Kacchan a side hug. The blond had stiffened and his eyes lit up the dark street from his anger, but he didn’t push Izuku away either. 

The rest of the way home was spent in silence. 

A stark contrast to when they got back and were met with the screamed lecture of Bakugou Mitsuki.

* * *

The next day, Izuku was back with Di Angelo, but life carried on with relatively no difference. The only thing that changed was their training schedule. 

They still had tutoring sessions three days a week. Bakugou still had his Quirk training on the weekends. But now instead of running and exercises and visiting the gym, for at least an hour everyday, they cleaned up that damn beach. On the days when school was out they spent no less than two hours. They did take breaks… if you stretch the definition of ‘breaks’ to include not breaks… but to their caretakers they did indeed take ‘breaks’. 

Anyway, cleaning the beach was difficult, as not only did moving and uncovering layers and piles of huge pieces of garbage was physically exhausting, and disgusting, (Izuku swore some nights he was never going to feel clean again) they also needed some sort of vehicle to put all the trash into, and that required an adult. 

Thankfully, Di Angelo lived up to his Italian name and was that very needed adult. 

Months passed, and people were beginning to take notice. Adults started volunteering to help out, offering their own vehicles and sometimes stopping by to pay them for their hard work. A few kids from the surrounding area even volunteered in desperate need of community service for one reason or another, and Di Angelo was once again happy to be the ‘adult in charge’ that signed their papers. But despite the extra hands, it was definitely Izuku and Kacchan who cleaned the majority of the beach... alone. 

Yet, little did they know that one of the many adults who stopped by simply to thank them, and offer them a bit of money, which Kacchan always took without a second thought while Izuku blushed and tried to refuse until Kacchan took it for him (he always gave it to Izuku later when they got home), would change a little quirkless Izukus life forever. 

The man, as Kacchan bluntly put it, was a walking corpse. His eyes were dark and sunken in, bright yellow hair long and stringy, and his entire frame was unhealthily skeletal. It was far-fetched but at first Izuku assumed the man's Quirk had something to do with zombies but the older man laughed and said absolutely not. 

The stranger said his name was Toshinori Yagi, and he eventually became a common regular to watch the two boys work. He offered to help sometimes but Kacchan always told him to ‘sit the fuck down, they had it.’ Which seemed to amuse Yagi-san a little bit. Between breaks of moving trash and loading the truck with more shit, they talked to the stranger and got to know him. He was a little like Di Angelo, in that he didn’t talk about much but he was obviously very passionate about the things he did talk about. He liked action movies, anything that involved the United States (as he was born there), and could easily keep up a conversation between the two teens about heroes. He was nice, if not a little strange. 

Then one day, only a few months away from the UA entrance exam...

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Kacchan snarked while on break at the skeleton of a man in a tracksuit, as it had been on his mind for a while. The young boy had sweat dripping down his body, and his breath was short from laboring for so long. Izuku groaned next to him, aching all over. “You're not a pedophile are you?”

Izuku choked on his own spit and Yagi-san had never looked more shocked or offended in the entire time they knew him. 

“K-kacchan! You can’t just accuse someone like that!”

“I promise, Young Bakugou, that is not why I am here,” Yagi-san had said firmly. 

Kacchan shrugged, “It’s the only explanation why you come here all the time.”

“I enjoy talking to you two, and I admire your hard work.” Yagi-san argued, meeting Kacchans accusing glare. 

After a few minutes, Kacchan relented and looked away, “Whatever you say, Corpse.” Then he walked a little ways away and started to do some stretches. 

Izuku apologized a hundred times for Kacchans behavior, which he wound up doing a lot. Assuring the older adult that the blond teen really did enjoy his company, he just had a tendency to be overly wary of people, especially strangers, out of nowhere. Yagi-san had assured the greenette it was fine, and that he guessed it was a tad strange he came by so much. 

Kacchan left not long after that, saying he was going back to work since they had more room in the truck to fill up with trash. Izuku said he needed a few more minutes,so he stayed where he sat next to Yagi-san. 

Once Kacchan was out of earshot, Yagi-San felt like it was the right time to ask. 

“Young Midoriya,” Yagi-san began, hoping it wouldn’t come across as creepy since the thought was now put into his head that his actions were odd. Izuku turned to face the older man, not feeling at all uncomfortable. He really did enjoy talking to the man, and so did Kacchan, that hadn’t been a lie. It was just Kacchans concern getting the best of him. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you use your quirk.”

Yagi-san’s question was emphasized when Kacchan blew up a rotting wooden desk into pieces so it would take less space in the truck. 

Izuku didn’t freeze, or stutter, nor did his mind go blank. He wasn’t happy with his answer, but he no longer felt ashamed of it either. 

“Actually I’m Quirkless.” He laughed softly, gazing at nothing over the sparkling sea that could now be seen in this part of the beach. 

Yagi-san blinked, surprised by the response. 

“You are?” Yagi-san asked, disbelieved. Izuku nodded, cheeks dusting a light pink. “Didn’t you mention you wanted to be a hero, though?”

Izuku nodded again, “I still do. I’m going to UA too.”

Yagi-san's eyes turned downcast, like a parent who needed to break it to their children that Santa Claus wasn’t real. 

“Young Midoriya… You need a quirk to be a hero.” He said gently, to not completely come across as an asshole. When he broke it to the young boy, he expected the younger lad to be offended, or to be angry, or to be in denial, or all of them at once. He didn’t expect the young boy to smile. 

“If Sir Nighteye can be All Might's sidekick with his quirk,” He quoted with confidence, remembering the day they decided to clean up this godforsaken beach. “Then I can get into UA without one.” 

Izuku stood up and started to do his stretches. He didn’t want to pull a muscle while he worked. 

Yagi-san stiffened, his voice caught in his own throat as he stared in awe at the younger boy. 

Izuku continued, “That's why we're cleaning up the beach! It’s really good training. Kacchan said it’ll look good on our applications too, but honestly…” Izuku turned around and smiled bright enough to put out the sun. “I think we both really wanted to do it because it was the heroic thing to do. Don’t tell him I said that though, he gets mad whenever you imply him helping someone was heroic.” He rolled his eyes fondly. 

“I better get back to work, bye Yagi-san,” Izuku waved as he jogged across the sand to join Kacchan trying to map out how to get a refrigerator out from underneath a mountain of shit. Leaving the old, withered hero shell shocked, for the first time in a very, very long while. 

“That’s my successor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the full chapter for those who read the excerpt last time. 
> 
> I’m still not sure about the updating schedule. 
> 
> \- Kayla


End file.
